Photos : projet de prise en charge de la malnutrition à Diourbel

Par ECHO et Croix Rouge Française

La malnutrition infantile est un réel problème de santé publique au Sénégal. La région de Diourbel a fait partie des zones en situation nutritionnelle critique, suite à la baisse de la production agricole 2011-2012.Grâce au soutien financier de la Direction générale de l’aide humanitaire et de la protection civile de l’Union européenne (DG ECHO), la Croix-Rouge sénégalaise(CRS) et la Croix-Rouge française (CRF) se sont associées aux autorités sanitaires nationales pour mettre en œuvre un projet de prise en charge de la malnutrition aigüe sévère dans deux districts sanitaires de la région de Diourbel : Touba et Mbacké. Ce projet cofinancé par l’UNICEF couvre désormais tous les districts sanitaires de la région de Diourbel. Ainsi c’est 10 000 enfants de 6-59 mois souffrant de malnutrition aigüe sévère dont 500 qui ont eu des complications médicales, qui ont été pris en charge d’Août 2012 à Octobre 2013.

  

 

Photos disponibles sur http://www.flickr.com/photos/69583224@N05/sets/72157638540306594/

 

Resilience wasn’t built in a day

By Anouk Delafortrie, Regional Information Officer for West Africa, ECHO

Upon interviewing Lenli Traoré, a small farmer in Tapoa, the easternmost province of Burkina Faso, about how his family will be coping after the failed harvest he pulls a faded photo from his breast pocket. “Paguidamba”, he explains, “was one year old when she died. She was ill and became malnourished. We waited too long to seek medical help.” The loss of his daughter five years ago has left Lenli mourning, prompting him to share the fading depiction of the girl with a big belly so as to keep her memory alive. Touched by his gesture, I come to appreciate the true value of him cherishing his lastborn Dieudonné which he tenderly holds while his wife Kanlafé prepares the family meal.

 

At only 7 months Dieudonné has already been seriously ill twice during the rainy season, first measles, then malaria. And luckily, this time, his mother had been included as a beneficiary of Action Against Hunger’s cash transfer programme in the region. Although initially meant as a form of food assistance, Kanlafé spent almost her entire last instalment on medical bills for Dieudonné. But the family is happy to have had the possibility to seek care immediately. Most of the 75€ that Kanlafé received in 5 instalments during the ‘lean season’, the hardest months of the year when food and water become scarce, were used to buy food and condiments as well as soap for their family of nine.

 

There is no silver bullet to solving the erosion of coping mechanisms which a decade of food crises, shifting climate patterns and increasing food prices have brought upon many families of the Sahel like the Traoré’s. The European Commission’s humanitarian aid department ECHO has been supporting various resilience-building pilot programmes, ranging from seasonal cash transfers for poor households to subsidised health care for the most vulnerable, which could make a real difference if combined and scaled up at the national level.

 

 

 

“Humanitarian aid has its limits,” says ECHO’s head of office in Burkina Faso Eric Pitois. “Our goal is to save lives, and undertake some preventative action. But we have to go further now and encourage donors and governments to commit to long-term policies that will lift these people out of extreme poverty.”

 

Resilience wasn’t built in a dayLooking at all that is being achieved in regions where pilot programmes are running, their immense potential becomes apparent. In 5 of the 63 Burkinabe sanitary districts, ECHO funds programmes to ensure free health care for children under five, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. The results are spectacular in that the average number of visits to health centres by mothers and children has multiplied many times over. This, in turn, is a blessing when striving to prevent children from becoming severely malnourished and dying from lack of care.

 

“Every year at the time of harvest, when parents are busy in the fields, the number of severely malnourished children admitted with medical complications increases,” says Action Against Hunger’s Dr. Issa Sawadogo who provides technical support for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition in Tapoa’s provincial hospital. “Children suffer the most when families don’t manage to be food self-sufficient. Malnutrition really needs to be considered as a public health priority and the solutions should not only come from NGOs.”

 

Brought together under an initiative to build resilience in the Sahel and West Africa – AGIR or the Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative – Dr. Issa’s point of view is gaining ground. The realization that increased agricultural production alone will not suffice to feed an exponentially growing population is sinking in. Infrastructure works and optimizing agricultural outputs can be extremely useful, but if there is one thing that humanitarians in this region are demonstrating, it is that investing in policies which shield the most vulnerable families, who are likely to benefit little from these works and agriculture schemes, from ‘falling in deeper’ is needed at the same time.

 

“Now is indeed the time to take action,” agrees Burkina Faso’s minister of agriculture Mahama Zoungrana. “Resilience should not be a single-sector effort, because it is a multi-disciplinary issue. We need to build on the best practices we’ve seen throughout the years and pull them together in AGIR so as to build long-term programmes that will allow our people to live in dignity.”

 

When asked about this year’s harvest, Lenli replied that the stock of cereals will only cover the family’s needs for 6 months. Alone in his field, shedding blood, sweat and tears to keep his family alive, one realizes it is not by lack of determination nor hard work that fathers like him come to lose their children, but by lack of a safety net.

 

AGIR aims to achieve zero hunger in West Africa by 2032. Rome wasn’t built in a day – and neither will resilience -, but building it on the right foundations can prevent the edifice from collapsing.

For more go to http://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en.htm
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Fighting Drought, Building Resilience in the Sahel one Community at a Time

By World Bank

The Senegal River courses through Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, making its way to the Atlantic Ocean after traversing some of the driest, drought-prone parts of western Africa.

As with any shared water resource, the Senegal River is a major economic, social and cultural lifeline for over 35 million people, 12 million of whom live in its river basin which has a surface area of 300,000 square kilometers.

The US$228.5 million Senegal River Basin Multipurpose Water Resources Development project approved today by the World Bank Group’s Board of Directors marks a new push to alleviate water scarcity and improve farming prospects for millions of people in the four riparian countries. The project is the second phase of a multi-sector, multi-country 10-year program working to bring more food, energy, irrigation and to meet other development targets.

 

 

Boost for Farming

Take rice, a major staple food and preferred cereal of choice across much of western Africa.  Along the banks of the Senegal River and deeper into the delta, cultivating rice is a major occupation and principal source of food and income security for farming communities whose fortunes largely depend on the availability of water for irrigation.

Currently, irrigated farming is limited. Less than half of the Senegal River basin’s irrigation potential, estimated at 375,000 hectares, is developed. Of the 130,000 to 140,000 hectares that are developed, only 90,000 hectares are really usable. The new project will bring irrigation to 13,000 hectares, enhance regional integration and promote multi-purpose water resources development to increase incomes and improve community livelihoods.

Thilene village, in northern Senegal, is an archetypal example of how transformative impact can be achieved by providing farmers with irrigation. There, a new irrigation system fed by the Senegal River is boosting rice production enabling farmers to achieve record rice harvests three times a year.

“In the past we used to have great difficulties accessing water,” said Mamba Diop, an enthusiastic rice farmer. “Today everybody has water, and everybody can farm all year long.  This has increased our revenues; rural-urban migration has stopped because all the young people are interested in agriculture.  We were even able to electrify our village and send our kids to school.” Diop also serves as President of the Thilene Farmers Union.

A similar story is playing out in neighboring Mali, where the Senegal River is formed through the merging of Bakoye and Bafing rivers.  Here, communities have practiced subsistence agriculture, and lack of irrigation has meant that prosperity had remained elusive until a new irrigation system was installed.

“Our main activity is farming, that’s our only source of income,” said Sambali Sissoko, a farmer in Bafoulabé village.  “We are organized in cooperatives and each one of us has a piece of land where we grow cabbage, onions, eggplant, lettuce and maize. We are now able to water our land, and we will have a good harvest and more revenues.”

Protecting Human Health

Water-related diseases associated with large water infrastructure projects are prevalent in the Senegal River basin, a necessary tradeoff of continuing efforts to meet burgeoning food and energy needs for a growing population that is projected to double every 25 years.

For example, malaria affects over 14% of kids under age five and 9% among pregnant women, the most vulnerable groups. Among the riparian countries, Guinea tops the list with the highest prevalence rate of over 54%, while Mauritania has the lowest prevalence rate of 1.2%.  Mali and Senegal have each reported prevalence rates of 3.1% and 2.1% respectively.

Thanks to proper management of water bodies and distribution of mosquito nets, more and more communities living in the Senegal River basin are close to seeing malaria banished from their lives. The project has already distributed 3.1 million long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets. As a result, the use of nets has increased from 27.6% to 46% overall.

The example from Richard Toll, a town lying on the south bank of the river in northern Senegal, is illuminating.  Commenting about how the battle against malaria is being waged successfully, Dr. Alassane Tall, a physician at the local health center noted that thanks to large-scale distribution of mosquito nets, it is very rare to enter a home in Richard Toll and not find a mosquito net.  “Today, we have almost no occurrences of malaria here,” he asserted.

In an interview, Sall Dieynaba Sy, a mother of two young children attested to the success of the mosquito net distribution strategy, adding “Every day, every night, all year long, my children and I sleep under a mosquito net.”

Fish for Food

After agriculture, fishing is the next most important economic activity in the Senegal River basin. Unsustainable fishing practices and changing hydrology are negatively impacting livelihoods in many communities.

To support development of inland fisheries and aquaculture in selected areas of the river basin, the project is providing funding for strengthening fisheries-related institutions, development of sustainable fisheries’ management programs, support for enhancing the value of fish catches through better storage infrastructure, and finance of aquaculture development programs.

“Fishing is our main activity, that is how we are able to provide for our families,” said Serigne Ba, who has been practicing the craft for three decades and is President of the fishery association in village Thiago, Senegal. “With the new fishing boats and nets, we are able to go further in the river, catch more fish, and conserve the fish for a longer time because we now have refrigerated containers. This allows us to sell fish locally and to markets far away such as Richard Toll.”

Coordination and Cooperation Vital for Transformative Impact

The Organization for the Development of the Senegal River Basin (known by its French acronym, OMVS) was established in 1972 to promote coordinated water and energy development. Jointly governed by Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, the OMVS is spearheading coordinated river basin planning and investment so that the risks of large-scale water investment are mitigated and the benefits are shared among the riparian states.

Speaking to the importance of a multi-pronged approach to sustainable development of the Senegal River basin, Kabiné Komara, High Commissioner of the OMVS said: “Over 12 million people living along the river used to be the poorest in the area. This project has improved health conditions and contributed to improved livelihoods. Through improved management of fisheries, food security has improved and revenues have greatly increased. In supporting agriculture, we didn’t just establish irrigated fields, but also provided farmers with guidance and training along with small loans that allowed for the improvement of agricultural techniques and sharing of knowledge sharing.”

As the four countries of the Senegal River basin work to improve the well-being of their people, it is clear that active coordination and close cooperation is delivering results.

“The second phase of the Senegal River Basin Multipurpose Water Resources Development project is helping communities to secure economic growth, improve well-being and cope and adapt to climate change,” said Shelley Mcmillan, Senior Water Resources Specialist and project leader. “This model of collaboration holds significant promise in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.”

For more go to www.worldbank.org
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Video - Humanitarian actors work on a three-year response plan

By The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Humanitarians closed today a two-day workshop on the Sahel chaired by the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper. They discussed anticipated needs of the Sahel and defined strategic objectives for the humanitarian response.

A three-year Sahel Strategy will be developped to support governments and humanitarians in the planning, coordination and implementation of their humanitarian work. This strategy will be launched in February 2014.

 

For more go to http://www.unocha.org/rowca/

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Little Boy Plays Again As WFP Works To Rebuild Lives In Northern Mali

By World Food Program

After three weeks of nutritious food, Souleymane's health
improved. Credit: WFP / Daouda Guirou

As displaced people and refugees start to voluntarily return to northern Mali, the World Food Programme is scaling up its operations to help rebuild livelihoods while also responding to immediate food and nutritional needs. Saouda Salihou, who returned to Gao with her young family, explains why this assistance is vital.

 

GAO - Sitting in front of her straw hut, Saouda Salihou proudly watches her two-year-old son Souleymane as he plays with his ‘toy cars’ – two tin cans attached to a length of rope. The toddler mischievously teases his older brother as he plays. Salihou, 27, can hardly believe this joyful, healthy child is the same boy she brought to a health clinic just three weeks ago.

 

During that visit to Gao’s health centre, Souleymane was diagnosed with moderate acute malnutrition. Nurses had weighed him and measured his mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) - a quick method to assess nutritional status.

 

Salihou was given Plumpy’Sup, a ready-to-use nutritional supplement delivered to health centres in Gao by WFP, in partnership with Action Against Hunger.

 

“After I started giving the product to my child, he quickly gained weight,” said Salihou. “The following week, I was amongst the first people to arrive at the health centre for my child’s medical appointment."

 

These weekly appointments allow health agents to monitor vulnerable children’s nutritional status. Mothers also receive information on nutrition, and are given cooking demonstrations, using local products like peanuts, millet and maize.

 

Salihou attended many of these cookery classes, but said she often did not have enough money to cook the nutritious meals she was shown.

 

She is not alone. In northern Mali, three out of four households are food insecure and heavily reliant on food assistance, according to the results of a joint survey carried out by WFP and the government of Mali in September this year.

 

Salihou returned to Gao in mid-October after spending around 18 months in the capital Bamako following her family’s flight from the conflict that gripped northern Mali. But her husband was unable to return to Gao with her as they could not afford the transport fees.

 

He sends a little money to the family, and Salihou uses this to buy and resell condiments in Gao market. But the little she earns is never enough.

 

This is why WFP’s school meals programme in Gao is so important. One of the reasons Salihou returned was to send her children to school in their home region.

 

Her 10-year-old daughter Alima is now enrolled, and was delighted to rediscover her old friends in the classroom. She also enjoys a hot meal of enriched porridge every morning and another hot meal at midday.

 

“I have struggled to feed my children since I returned and it’s a real relief for me that Alima is getting food at school. She is also very motivated to go to school,” said Salihou.

 

WFP provides school meals to around 120,000 children in 576 schools in northern Mali. As more schools reopen, WFP is expanding this programme. WFP is also extending its malnutrition prevention and treatment in areas where health centres have started to function again.

 

“WFP is scaling up its operations and requires more funding,” said Sally Haydock, WFP’s Representative in Mali.

 

“The drought and subsequent food crisis in 2012, combined with the protracted security crisis have made it very difficult for the most vulnerable people to rebuild their lives. They will require food assistance throughout 2013 and into 2014,” she said.

 

For more go to www.wfp.org
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Prévenir la malnutrition infantile au Mali avec des distributions de compléments alimentaires

By ALIMA

Du 28 octobre au 4 novembre 2013, les équipes de Alima et de son partenaire au Mali, l’Alliance Médicale Contre le Paludisme (AMCP), ont réalisé la première distribution d’Aliments Supplémentaires Prêts à l’Emploi (ASPE) dans le district de Kangaba en partenariat avec les autorités sanitaires locales de la région de Koulikouro. Au total, 4439 enfants ont ainsi reçu une ration de 4 pots de Plumpy’doz.



Les mamans reçoivent les conseils d’utilisation et de conservation.

Chaque enfant reçoit une ration de 4 pots pour un mois © Alima / Ouologuem Sekou



Le plumpy’doz est une pâte constituée de lait en poudre et d’arachides, c’est un complément alimentaire, dont la prise quotidienne permet de satisfaire les besoins des enfants de 6 à 36 mois en micronutriments essentiels. Il a été conçu pour réduire l’incidence de la malnutrition dans des pays où l’accès à une alimentation est monotone et ne satisfait pas les besoins nutritionnels spécifiques de cette tranche d’âge. L’utilisation de suppléments nutritionnels permet une réduction de la malnutrition chronique et a un réel impact sur la diminution de la malnutrition aigüe globale.

 

« Lors de cette distribution, nous avons ciblés les enfants sains âgés de 06 à 23 mois car après la phase de l’allaitement maternel, cette tranche d’âge est la plus vulnérable en termes de mortalité et de retard de développement » commente Ouologuem Sekou, le responsable du projet Alima/AMCP dans le district. Dans cette zone, les enfants souffrent également du paludisme ; ils vont cesser de s’alimenter correctement pendant deux à trois jours, ce qui les rend encore plus vulnérables aux maladies. A l’inverse, la dénutrition les expose à des risques accrus de maladies. La prévention de la malnutrition dans sa globalité est donc essentielle pour réduire la mortalité infantile liée aux pathologies courantes comme les diarrhées et infections respiratoires.

 

Une distribution de Plumpy’doz préparée et menée avec les acteurs de santé locaux

 

En amont de la distribution, le personnel des centres de santé et du district ont été formés et associés aux campagnes de sensibilisation à travers l’identification et l’encadrement des agents de santé et relais communautaires pour mener des opérations de dépistage au porte à porte. Les enfants atteint de malnutrition ont été référés vers le centre de santé le plus proche pour une prise en charge appropriée par Alima/AMCP et l’ONG Afasso.

 

L’ensemble des accompagnants des enfants a été informé des dates de distribution du plumpy’doz et ont bénéficié de recommandations sur l’alimentation des jeunes enfants. Des messages de sensibilisation en langue locale (le malinké) ont également été diffusés à travers les radios locales. Malgré les difficultés d’accès de la zone découpée par la rive droite du fleuve Niger, en huit jours, 17 756 pots de Plumpy’doz ont été distribués.

 

« Ma petite sœur Nassira n’a pas encore 2 ans », nous explique Lala Traoré, âgée de 18 ans, lors de la distribution dans le Centre de Santé Communautaire de Habala Dougou Kenieba. « Tous les jours, elle mange du riz et d’autres aliments selon ce que la famille peut trouver. Je ne sais pas ce qu’est la malnutrition, mais j’ai bien compris que ma petite sœur devait prendre 3 cuillères à soupe des pots reçus entre les repas pour rester en bonne santé ».

 

La distribution d’ASPE cible au total 6958 enfants dans 189 villages du district de Kangaba. Appuyée par l’UNICEF, elle s’inscrit dans le cadre du programme de réduction de la mortalité infantile de la région de Koulikoro de Alima/AMCP au sud Mali. Les équipes de Alima/AMCP envisagent d’étendre cette activité à 5 autres districts de la région de Koulikouro.

 

 Pour plus d'information visitez www.alimaong.org

 

New Humanitarian Appeals Process for the Sahel

By the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

From 28-29 November, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel (RHC) is convening governments, Humanitarian and Resident Coordinators, Cluster Coordinators, Regional Directors, NGOs, Donors, and Chairs of Regional Sector Working Groups in a workshop to plan the humanitarian response for the Sahel for next three years. Participants to the workshop will finalize the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) in the Sahel and outline the Strategic Response Plan (SRP) for 2014-2016. Objectives of the workshop are three-fold: (1) to reach a shared understanding of humanitarian needs in the region; (2) to identify shared strategic objectives and indicators for a 3-year regional response strategy for the Sahel; and (3) to agree on procedures and timelines for strategic response strategies.

 

The HNO and SRP processes replace the traditional humanitarian appeals process, known as the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP). The regional humanitarian Sahel Strategy for 2014-2016 will be launched at a high-level event in early February 2014.

For more go to http://www.unocha.org/rowca/
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